Slip and fall accidents account for nearly 25% of all workplace-related injuries. It’s one of the commonest kinds of personal injury cases. Tree trimmers and pruners, carpenters and roofers are some of the occupations having lion’s share of all fall-related fatalities across the US.
Slip & Fall at Work – Some Common Causes
- Poor lighting
- Spilled liquids
- Holes in the floor
- Uneven or broken stairs
- Uneven, cracked or torn flooring
- Unexpected, sudden elevator stops
- Non-existent or inadequate warning signs
- Wires, cables or cords stretched across the floor
Filing a Compensation Claim for Workers’ Injury
Any employee suffering an injury at the workplace is entitled to workers’ compensation benefits. These benefits cover medical treatment and therapy bills, expenses flowing out of pocket to avail medications, crutches etc and nearly two-thirds of income lost during treatment, therapy and recovery.
Workers’ compensation insurance comes as bliss for the employees as they are entitled to benefits without being required to prove that the employer was responsible for the accident and injury. In other words, even if the accident happened due to their fault, they have the rights to workers’ benefits though certain limitations apply.
Notify Your Employer Immediately
If you have sustained an injury, you should immediately seek medical attention. Once you feel little better, notify your employer about your slip and fall accident without wasting time.
Sometimes, injuries are severe and easily visible. These include bleeding wounds, broken bones and even loss of consciousness. Sometimes, the injury is more severe, such as, head injury. The more horrible part of such injuries is symptoms often surface over hours or even days.
Many workers usually sustain soft tissue injuries from slips, falls or trips at work. Soft tissue injuries usually involve sprains, strains or bruises to joints, tendons or muscles. Pain and stiffness caused by a soft tissue injury may not show up in a day or two.
Don’t ignore slip and fall at your workplace. People often feel embarrassed after a slip and fall and try to laugh it off. Never do the mistake of making little of your slip and fall injuries as not receiving immediate treatment will cause you mild to severe harm. Also make it a point not to dilly dally in notifying your employer until problems crop up as a “wait and watch” approach is not justified in such situations.
When telling your employer about what happened, make sure to narrate everything in details such as, causes of the fall, which body part was affected, if injury caused dizziness or pain or other details that might amount to potential injuries from the slip and fall.
Your right to compensation for personal injury can hinge on immediate reporting of the slip and fall incident to your employer. Now the insurance company for workers’ compensation jumps into the scenario only to deny an injured rightful claim. The commonest excuses they put forward are the accident did not occur at the workplace, an accident described by you could not cause such severe injuries or you put off notifying your employer about the incident.
Approach Khan Law Firm, make an appointment with a senior advocate and talk at length and in details. A personal injury lawyer is the right person to balance the in equation, having you on one side and the mighty insurer on another.
